A Dell technician arrived today to replace the motherboard on my Inspiron *again* – this time the problem was what appeared to be a loose network port. While I was in Sydney, the port was having all sorts of problems working correctly. It’d drop a connection if I wriggled the cable around, eventually getting it back and working until the computer or cable was moved. I tried different wall sockets, cables, ports on the hubs, etc. All the same, so I reported the issue to Dell and they arranged for a tech to come out and replace the board.
Of course, on the day the guy was coming out, the connection was working perfectly here in the Melbourne office. Go figure.